Episode #5 How can a teacher promote Multicultural Education?

On today's episode,  I'm going to share how you can bring this philosophy to life with multiple perspectives at the forefront in  your classroom. 

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Hey, everyone, there are so many strategies out there that it could feel overwhelming on, where do I start? You know, gaining access to diverse resources in your classroom is just the starting point, I'm going to share with you on today's episode on how you can bring this philosophy to life with multiple perspectives at the forefront. Alright, let's get to it. So today we're going to talk about how teachers can use these tools to promote multicultural education. Some of us are going, Okay, I've heard about multicultural education. So how can I implement it in to my classroom? I know you guys are looking for your white charts, what does what does it look like sound like feel like so we're going to get through all of that. So if you want to draw your own wide chart, you can but don't hurt yourself. So I want us to talk about how we really need to have access to diverse resources in our classroom. All right, I want you to think about how students and their need to connect to their teachers how they need to connect to their fellow classmates. But it needs to be in a way that it Everyone has a sense of belonging. in that classroom. You want to walk into that classroom environment and feel safe. And it's up to teachers to create the safe classroom environments. You know, we can start with decorating your classroom with posters that says All are welcome here. If you're having posters that are promoting cultural diversity, make sure they are cultural, least skin tone, like human skin tone, okay, we don't need purple people. Okay, we need culturally relevant, appropriate posters. When we're talking about multicultural education. multicultural education also encompasses our diverse groups of people. That's not just ethnicities, it's languages put posters up with multiple languages up so kids can read these languages, explore these languages, put posters up that are friendly to the LGBTQ community as well. You know, students that come into your classroom need to have that sense of belonging, that sense of inclusion. And it all starts with walking in through your classroom doors. Now, when we do have this sense of belonging, teachers will go one step further. And by doing that, you need to better understand your students backgrounds. So we got our classroom environment set up check, right. So now we're talking about really understanding who your students really are. morning meetings are one of my favorite tools of gaining understanding of who your students are. Although I'm teaching virtually this year, I have always been every single morning that we do a morning meeting, you can even kick it up a notch by doing cultural sharing. Now, when we're talking about sharing cultures, like I said, it doesn't necessarily have to be ethnic. It could be your students, families, way of life way of learning. There's people that we can talk about our similarities with, we could talk about traditions that you can see that as face through all kinds of groups of people. For example, we take a family picture in our family. So when I would do cultural sharing, I would have students shared their favorite family photos. It could be something goofy at the cabin. It could be something where people are in their traditional ethnic attire. So these are little things but they have a huge impact in your classroom when it comes to trying to get your students involved by promoting this multicultural education. Now, I also love being able to teach project based units of study. One of my favorite units of study was titled African American biography. One of our favorite units of the year I would do was called African American biographies. And we did a huge African American excellence Hall of Fame at the end of our unit and I gave my students a list of different African American leaders, scientists, activists, lawmakers, and other contributors in our United States. And I give them names that were not particularly familiar. You know, a lot of the students that at my age that I teach in fifth grade, they know LeBron James. They know Duran, they know Russell Wilson, they know, Sierra, they, you know, but I in Oprah and Michelle Obama, but they didn't know other people that were like made Jemison. They didn't know Marcus Garvey, they didn't even know engineers and philosophers, doctors like Charles Drew, and I wanted them to have a list of people that you would hear about, but not know in depth of what contributions they gave to our country. And so I gave my students a two week time frame. And the first three days was strictly on premiering, the research tools, I gave them credible sources that they could search, I had lots of primary sources in my classroom, I had pictures, I had posters, I had all kinds of resources at my students fingertips that they could use. And it was a lot of writing a lot of note taking. And then they took their research. And then they created a poster, they created a skit as a group, they created a slideshow presentation. So I gave them different ways of sharing and presenting their work with the rest of the classroom. So project based assignments, assessments is a way to engage all kinds of learners. And it's a way for all of our learners and students to showcase their strengths, and come up with something really meaningful. And also, they learn a lot more when they have buy in as well. We can also turn that into using that same project based approach by tackling historical and current events. You know, we can use, like I said, those primary resources again, we could get news clippings, we could get video, we could even get interviews of things on researching different topics. Now, I know some of us when it comes to historical events, even current events, especially in the world we're living in right now can feel very daunting, and right there with you. But if you take the time and prep yourself first, instead of being on the fly, it'll be a more impactful positive way of how you can approach these subjects. I really want you educators to really dig deep, and think about when you're looking at these events. Ask yourself these questions what group was harmed or affected? And could a person in my classroom identify with this group. Now, if you say yes to both of these, that's normal. But you need to think educators that are thinking about how you can get this information out for your students to learn, but also remain sensitive to the fact that the groups involved might not be personal, Li connected to your student, but intrinsically they are. So you need to make sure that whatever material you are showing, make sure it is vetted. Make sure that your students understand the context before you just display it out there. Now, we need to know that these uncomfortable events require us to teach and it's critical in bridging the gap of understanding. You know, there's still divide in our country. And we need to know how to teach these types of situations. In these events, we need to know that these particular events have shaped our history. They have shaped what could be in the The future of our country. So let's not have that notion of all, let's just not say we did, or crossing our fingers to see if they'll cover this subject or this event in next year's class, so that teacher will deal with it. So you really have to go and do your research. Find those experts out there and seeing how you can handle these situations, and a culturally responsive way. Now, when you're studying these specific topics, you need to make sure that you have multiple resources to help show these events from the lenses of all the affected groups of people. So for example, when I teach about slavery, I first don't start with chattel slavery in America, I start my union on teaching ancient African kingdoms, I want my students to learn about the different groups of African leaders, the kingdom of Sungai, the great Mozambique, you know, I want my students to have that foundation and background knowledge, before we get to the dehumanization of the practice of chattel slavery. You know, a lot of our education in elementary schools starts off with that. And then it goes to Black History Month, and then it goes to the civil rights movement. And then that's all they have. So when you have that foundation, first of researching the continent of Africa, researching the historical contributions that were there centuries before, it really gives your students that multiple lens of what happened before, during and after. And it also helps your timeline go a lot smoother. Now, I intertwine this ancient African kingdoms, with my Age of Exploration unit. Now, when we talk about European contact in the colonization of the Americas, this notion of colonization and the the contact with the United States before the United States, you need to also teach the Taino people, the indigenous people, the the the nations that were there before European contact as well, you don't want it to be just a one viewpoint of what happened, that narrative, we've learned that narrative growing up as young people, now we are at that age and time where we know there's multiple perspectives. So we need to have multiple narratives at the same time. So when we dig deep into getting the perspectives of the indigenous peoples in the Americas, and their encounters with the Europeans, we get the indigenous Africans and their encounters with the Europeans, it really gives you that different mindset of the Age of Exploration. And students will be able to come up with answers to well, who was exploring whom? What are we exploring, if there were indigenous people there first, maybe we should come up with a new title, instead of maybe the from the Age of Exploration, maybe talk about the age of colonization, because that's what was happening, it was colonization. So those are the things that you can use these type of historical events, and put it in a purposeful way where multiple groups are learned by their experiences of what happened at that same point in time, you can switch it up with our current events and use that same model of getting various perspectives. Now, my tip on the current events. Now I know there are some things that you don't want to show and please, please do not show graphic content to your students. It depends on the age group. If you feel the need to show some graphical content, please run it by your principal first. And if your principal or supervisor agrees, please have that as one basis. But the second basis, please make sure your families know ahead of time of what is going to be shown what is going to be talked about and discussed and give your parents the option to opt out. Great groups, especially bipoc, black indigenous people of color. When we are in situations where we have been negatively affected in a way that has brought on historical trauma, you need to understand that families should always have that option to step out and maybe discuss that situation or that event with their child prior before you teach that into your curriculum. So, first and foremost, please make sure when you're talking about historical and current events, you have done your research. Now, switching gears, we love a good celebration. Don't wait. And I love food and festivals time. Yes, they are so good to showcase the plethora of recipes and cuisine and dancing and our our beautiful attire from different countries. Having a festival of nations having a celebrate South America, celebrating the America celebrate Africa celebrate Asia, celebrate the Middle East, there's so many types of festivals and foods that students love to see. And like I said, I love to eat. And I know kids love to eat, especially when you're talking about food and festivals. But there's one thing educators are really want you to focus on. If you decide to do a food and festival, make sure your students have researched you have taught it's a part of a culminating activity in your project base unit of study on this particular culture or country or way of life. You know, what good is that falafel or that jello frys, or that bow or dumplings? If it's on a plate, if there's no context of why the significance of these foods are here, how it's prepared, you know, getting your community members involved in that decision making process is so important. You know, I see the trend where we have, the intention is excited. It's great. But it's done after one day. And students can't even tell you why that food was there. You know, if you build up the reasons why we have these particular foods, the reason why we have our Kente cloth and how it's made, or the reason why there's Indigo paint, and the reason why we have our mom story quilts, these are the types of things where you need to have your community involved. If you are not the expert, seek out the experts. So make sure you build up what you want to accomplish with your goal of what you want your students to learn and know and go away with, and have that food and festival be your culminating to da type of event because it should be celebrated. But you should know the reason why you are celebrating these foods in these events. One of my favorite things, I'm a proud Liberian American. And I would always talk about my stories of living in the United States with my Liberian parents and my Liberian grandparents and aunts and uncles, and the foods we eat. And I mean, I would describe and show my students and they would even have to do a research project on the different foods of Africa, and how the different regions of Africa has completely different cuisine, and how students would actually understand that, yes, people in the eastern coast of Africa eat things like Chow potties, which is like a pancake, but you roll it up. And people in the southern part of Africa use more sea food methods. So people so when I had my students research cuisines, they research the different cuisines in Africa by region, and it gave them that notion that not everybody from Africa eats the same thing and So I made them go into each region, we study the different types of foods. And then I have them go home and find a recipe from a particular country and have them make it at home with their families to share. And then they displayed it with a picture. Some families even put it on Facebook, thanking me for giving them an idea to have their student involved. Now, this is the types of things where you can take your food and vegetables up a notch. Having your students have buy in learning about the food and the importance of it, learning about the particular clothing is so important for cultural understanding. Now inviting families into your classroom. I know right now, in the time of COVID, it is very hard, but we are all well versed in Google meats, and zoom. So if you can't physically invite the families in, you can still virtually invite the families in have families share a story about their lives or their background about how they grew up what school was like for them, have them come in and sing virtually, I had a family member in my class where the parent was a musician and he studied from a well worldwide known drummer and musician from Ghana. And he taught my students via Google meet in our morning meeting and taught us a Nazi song. He also taught us how to do a fun call and response game. So because we are closed off to inviting physically, families in that should not hinder us from inviting these same families into your classroom virtually, this gives us a better understanding of who we are in our own community. I always hear people say, oh, Jeb, we don't have this group of people here are all just looking around. We're just not that diverse. And that's just not true. You have people people are here we exist. All right, I don't have. I don't know how many times I need to remind people, that sounds bad. I want us to know that people of all walks of life exist. And that sense of belonging is priceless. So don't shy away from going to your place of worship, don't shy away from going to your socially distant sporting events with your kids. And you know, when you interact with these families, invite them to come into your classroom, they'll be so happy to be a part of it. And that child of that parent will sit up a little taller because their family member is in their classroom, showcasing how special they truly are. And I feel like we can do something by having more of that inclusive base. If we step outside of the box, and open our Google meat virtual door to our families. It's free, it doesn't cost the thing. But the return on the investment you have on your students will be a lifetime impact. So I just wanted to share some really neat strategies that you can implement and promote multicultural education. It's nothing complicated, but it is so worth it. Once you finally have that understanding, and knowledge base. I can't wait to discuss more curriculum, ideas and facts with you. And I cannot wait to discuss more culturally responsive strategies with you all. I hope you can take this time, get some fuel in your belt. I hope you can take this time to self reflect and self transform. Don't forget to subscribe wherever you follow podcasting with the cultural curriculum chat, and I can't wait to see you again. Take care